Kworq Blog

It’s All Personal: The Kworq 2017 Trend Forecast

We know, we know. It’s already halfway through January and we’re still talking about the New Year (and don’t even get us started about getting over 2016). So to get this thing out of our heads, we asked everyone in the office what they’re looking forward to in 2017 and what we should bury in the year-that-must-not-be-named.

What’s interesting though is that even if we all answered four simple questions separately, there were common threads in all our answers: interaction, personalization, and that a dash of nostalgia may or may not necessarily be a good thing.

Guy Peires, Co-founder, on web design

What’s gonna be the next big thing this year?

Just maybe… Web design that doesn’t just react from interaction, but thinks and predicts why the user came there. Interfaces that, even during the first session of usage, customize and produce not the experience you expected, but the one you needed – Predictive design.

Why do you think so?

As AI begins to infiltrate our everyday life, our expectation from design by humans will shift. How can we better aid the user to communicate with something whose responses the designer cannot completely know in advance? Precision may become a handicap.

And what should we leave behind in 2016?

The idiom “No need to reinvent the wheel”. It sucks because it is overused, and at times misused. Last year it seemed every small business website looked the same. As if one theme and plugin package was used for them all.

Uniformity is kind of boring.

Yes, it is convenient and cost effective. It is also a lethargy in design. The ease negates discovery, making way for a spiritless means to an end. It’s true, often there is no need to reinvent. Though anything can be enhanced or improved upon. Even the wheel.

“Design should not dominate things, should not dominate people. It should help people. That’s its role.” – Dieter Rams

Fantasy.co Head of UX Peter Smart predicts that the future of interactive design will be emotional. Read his long, informative blog here.

Robin Baudreau, Producer, on advertising

What’s got you sold in 2017?

This is going to sound like an obvious answer because everyone says they do it but no one really does it well: Branded content and experiences that not only look great, but are driven by a narrative.

Do you think it’s already oversaturated?

I feel like 2016 was the year of realizing that we have 10+ mediums to reach consumers and marketers were throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Everyone has to try to newest platform or technology and blast out content because that’s what everyone else is doing. I really believe consumers are getting tired of content, content, content and will start looking and connecting to brands that are doing really great content at a steady pace, telling a story or narrative that speaks to them.

And what should we leave behind in 2016?

Bad VR experiences.

What makes a bad VR experience?

Maybe other people disagree, but I have absolutely no desire to put on a headset that only transports me to a place without telling me why I’m there. Going on my point above, I think people are enthralled with VR because it is VR without thinking about what can really make the experience unique. There’s no point without a story.

Last May, Facebook released this 360 drama at the Grand Central.

Martin Diegor, Art Director, on brand hype

What are you looking forward to this year?

Tracing roots and diving deep—there’s a lot of good content there.

Is it sort of like just rehashing old stories, though?

Robin made a great point: The sea content out there is already massive and adding to it only feels like dripping water out of a small faucet. But some companies are realizing that they can tap stories that they’ve told before, whether it’s creating fiction about your founder, reverting to old logo designs, or giving access to the vault of your archive, brands are going back to things that made them what they are today.

What are you tired of seeing?

#Ultralongbrandedhashtags

LOL.

Now it’s already hard to squeeze a comprehensible thought into a 140-character limit, and you’re saying you officially want to use #FollowYourDreamsNYC2017? Remember: Brevity is the soul of the wit. #Annoying

A curated selection of Condé Nast archive, with items going as far back as the 1920s, is on sale at www.condenaststore.com

Kevin Chen, Designer, on throwbacks

How far back are we looking at?

Brutalism/90’s throwback design

What makes that period so great?

Millennials remember a time when the Internet was a place of wonder and minor miracles instead of the mundane and the terrible.

But I hear you’re also not into romanticizing vintage.

Design that’s made to look old and weathered don’t do it for me. I think after 2016 we all understand that things weren’t more authentic or more sincere in the good ol’ days, and that people moved on for good reasons.

www.adultswim.com is the back of your high school notebook come to life.

Ophelie de Zutter, Design Intern, on experiences

What are you looking forward to this year?

2017 will actively bring experiences into graphic design. It will blur the border between digital, event and print designs.

What made you say so?

Where is the end of communication and the beginning of entertainment? And when do we call that an event? Not too sure anymore with the VR and the Directs on social media. 2017 will probably create more possibilities to get people involved by combining all of the formats.

And what are you tired of?

Flat design should definitely not go through this winter.

What perspective are you looking at here?

It was a great innovation to make websites and apps more easy to deal with, but what about personality? Insipid pictograms, color shade and block organization—for 2017 we want more character and innovations for graphic design!

Snapchat’s Spectacles puts back the “social” in social media by actually trying to get your hands free from your phone.